Saturday, January 24, 2009

Young Man, Old Man

Back from Brisbane. Slightly sunburnt and in a daze at work on Friday due to the time lag.

Weds morning we spent a few hours going up and down the river on the City Cat ferry system.

The concert was 16km outside Brisbane at a place called Boondall so we took the train there. Public transport in Brisbane is efficient and cheap. The support act, My Morning Jacket were pretty good.

Neil put on a great show. There was a technical hitch with the mic on a banjo during 'Old Man' which somebody captured in the clip below. As a result Neil banters with the crowd and the song doesn't start until 1:51 The 2nd clip is a 'young' Young performing 'Old Man' in 1971. The 'old' Young still has the voice and the guitar licks.

One of the highlights was the hymn-like song Neil performed at a church organ. I think this was new material written to mark Obama's inauguration. The change of President means that he didn't play recent political material like 'Lets Impeach The President' but mostly old classics like Cortez the Killer, Cowgirl in the Sand, Old Man, Cinnamon Girl, Hey Hey, My My, Powderfinger.

It was a two hour set with a few extended jam sessions. The finale was a crowd pleasing, stomping 'Rockin In the Free World' and the encore was a slightly surreal version of theBeatles 'A Day in The Life'.